RATED R

From Academy Award winning director of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit tells the gripping story of one of the darkest moments during the civil unrest that rocked Detroit in the summer of ‘67. (c) Annapurna Pictures

It hurts, because it needs to. This is not a film about civic pride or the city’s comeback. We have to own this, and Bigelow highlights this ugly moment on its 50th anniversary. Yes, the city has moved on, but this incident still stings.
Adam Graham | Detroit News | Full review

Even though it’s based on an episode that occurred half a century ago, it feels like [Bigelow’s] timeliest movie yet.
Ann Hornaday | Washington Post | Full review

The film’s unflinching gaze on a lawless night will likely be politicized, but calling Detroit anti-police misses the mark. The question Detroit begs is, in a democratic nation, to whom does the law apply?
Andrea Mandell | USA Today | Full review

Director Bigelow and screenwriter Boal take the Detroit race riots of half a century ago and create a hardcore masterpiece that digs into our violent past to hold up a dark mirror to the systemic racism that still rages in the here and now.
Peter Travers | Rolling Stone | Full review

The film’s struggle against simplification – against the sentimentality, wishful thinking and outright denial that defines most Hollywood considerations of America’s racial past – is palpable, almost heroic, even if it is not always successful.
A.O. Scott | New York Times | Full review